Area robotics teams hope for big crowds as well as victory

Thomas V. Bona

Sunday

Feb 28, 2010 at 12:01 AMFeb 28, 2010 at 12:08 AM

The Rock River Valley is sending robots to battle the world. Make that four high school robotics teams that are competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition this year. The competition uses a sportslike setting to encourage interest in engineering, mechanics, programming and other technical skills.

INSIDE: Video of four area robotics teams

The Rock River Valley is sending robots to battle the world.

Make that four high school robotics teams that are competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition this year. The competition uses a sportslike setting to encourage interest in engineering, mechanics, programming and other technical skills.

They include perennial powerhouse Winnovation from Winnebago High School, fast-growing Rockford Robotics, the improving Oregon High School RoboHawks and the rookie Boone County Flying Monkeys.

All four are sending robots capable of zipping along a field and kicking soccer balls to regional competitions in March. All have hopes of making the national tournament before 20,000 fans at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta in April.

“We’ve had a lot of fun and enjoyed working with students in the area to get teams started,” said Karen Hill, coordinator of Winnovation, which has reached Atlanta four of its five years and has mentored younger teams.

Getting fans in the seats
The goal this year is not just to win, but also to get as many supporters to watch the matches and cheer on their teams. In addition to parents and mentors, each team wants to see teachers, school officials and friends, like any school team going to the big game.

It’s a lot of fun to watch the competition, supporters say. This year’s game, “Breakaway,” will have teams of robots negotiating a bumpy field and kicking soccer balls into goals while trying to prevent other teams from doing the same. At the end, each robot will try to pull itself up onto towers hanging over the field.

Fans bring face paint, signs and chants to the competitions.

“This year’s game should make sense to everybody because it’s like soccer,” said Sherri Taylor, coordinator of the Oregon RoboHawks.

Helping others out
FIRST — Foundation for the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology — was founded by inventor Dean Kamen. The idea was to help train young minds to want to work in highly technical fields that can keep the U.S. competitive in the global economy.

The competition has grown steadily, with Fortune 500 companies sponsoring it and matches streamed live on the Internet.

There are 1,800 teams in the U.S. and in some other countries, said FIRST spokesman Dennis Garrigan. The number is growing as teams recruit and mentor others.

For example, Winnovation helped Rockford Robotics — a group of public-, private- and home-schooled students — get off the ground and has mentored other teams as well.

Rockford, now in its fourth year, has become a mentor to Oregon and Boone County.

“It’s definitely taken away some of the time we could have spent improving our design, but that’s not what FIRST is about. FIRST isn’t about us having better robots than other teams, it’s about spreading the word and helping others out,” said Rockford’s lead mentor, Adam Czerwonka. “It feels good to get some growth around here. ... I’m pleased to see more people getting involved.”

Teams stand to win not just for their robot’s on-field performance but also for “gracious professionalism” — how they help others and get involved in their communities.

The new Boone County team, started by 4-H and the University of Illinois’ Boone County Extension office, started with that in mind, coordinator Amy Krass said.

“One of our goals for after the contest is to get out there in the community, networking and showing people what we’ve done. ... They’re not just being told there’s a robotics team, they know what the team really does,” she said.

Cool ’bots
The teams are already justly proud of their robots.

Winnovation’s runs on a six-wheel swerve drive, which makes it more nimble. It’s something that Winnovation believes hasn’t been used in FIRST before.

“It’s a really neat system,” Hill said. “We’ve posted video ... and other teams have commented, and they’re really impressed with how well it works.”

Rockford’s robot will kick the balls with a winch-driven system, which allows the team more control on how powerful the kicks are.

“The goals are only about 2 feet high, so if you’re close and you kick it too high, it’s going to bounce back up the field,” Czerwonka said. “What we can do is tap it in when we’re close, and when we’re on the other end of the playing field, we can give it a solid boot.”

Oregon overcame a smaller team with few mentors to make a robot that’ll fare better than last year’s, which couldn’t move for much of the competition. Oregon also will submit strong entries in animation and 3-D design competitions.

The Boone County team is just satisfied it made a competition-ready robot with only six students in its first year.

“They really got to dig into it and see how things are wired. ... They really caught on very well,” Krass said. “These kids haven’t had the chance to ever look at anything like this before. I think it’s opened up a whole new world to them.”

New careers in mind
North Boone High School sophomore Seth Sager said the program already has gotten him thinking of studying engineering or mechanics.

“It gives you more of a goal,” he said. “I like putting stuff together, seeing how (it works), how to make it better and if something does go wrong, I see what I did wrong and learn from it.”

Oregon High School sophomore Soren Cates has enjoyed the challenge of this year’s build season, particularly programming. Now he’s thinking of going into programming as a career.

Guilford High School senior Joe Vander Heyden said his time with Rockford Robotics has fine-tuned his interest in engineering, and now he specifically wants to work on the civil side.

Winnebago High School senior Dillon Carey is one of several on his team who will study engineering in college.

“I just always liked working on things, and when I got to high school, I started doing robotics. That just finalized it for me,” he said.